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A 100% O2 atmosphere would produce oxygen toxicity in the human body. Plus, it would create a huge fire hazard. Now, it's possible that we could be ok with a g
by credit_guy 4y ago
A 100% O2 atmosphere would produce oxygen toxicity in the human body. Plus, it would create a huge fire hazard.
Now, it's possible that we could be ok with a gas mix that's different from the traditional 21% oxygen 78% nitrogen we have here. But we don't like to experiment on humans. A different gax mix would need a lot of long term testing on animals before we'd ever consider using it.
- dahdum 4y agoI believe you may be incorrect, the fraction is not the problem [1]. Apollo also ran with pure O2, even after an early accident under higher pressure [2]. > In such applications as extra-vehicular activity, high-fraction oxygen is non-toxic, even at breathing mixture fractions approaching 100%, because the oxygen partial pressure is not allowed to chronically exceed 0.3 bar (4.4 psi). 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity 2. https://www.popsci.com/why-did-nasa-still-use-pure-oxygen-after-apollo-1-fire/ https://www.popsci.com/why-did-nasa-still-use-pure-oxygen-af...
- barelyauser 4y agoIs there any data about long term effects?
- patall 4y agoThat's why I am writing 'at 0.2 atmospheres'! Under that condition, you do get neither any poisoning (which the internet claims appears at 1.4 atmospheres pure oxygen), nor a big fire hazard. You create other problems due to the lower air pressure like lower boiling temperature and more body heat retention but those might be engineered away... On SkyLab, astronauts supposedly experienced 75% oxygen, 25% nitrogen for upto 84 days (again at lower pressure). That's not really long term, but not short either.